In 2018, authorities in Oman escorted two American college students off a local university campus as they alleged the students were sharing their faith with Muslims. Omani law prohibits proselytism, and its constitution defines Islam as the state religion and declares sharia law as the basis of legislation.
Depending on the nature of their offense, the students could have faced up to 10 years in prison. Alternatively, they could have been found in violation of the law forbidding religious teaching without a government permit—as they were in the country on a tourist visa—and deported. Instead, they were let go with a warning.
Michael Bosch, a persecution analyst with Open Doors, said many foreign Christians who work with Omani converts from Islam have had to leave the country. For security reasons, Open Doors does not give numbers or details of these cases, yet it believes the Omani law hinders religious freedom.
However, Justin Meyers, director of Oman’s al-Amana Center (AAC), an interfaith ministry partnering with the Reformed Church in America, believes the law actually protects the religious freedom of its diverse population. (Part 1 of this series explained AAC’s background.)
After the students’ arrest, the Ministry of Religious Affairs called Meyers, asking him to talk with the students. Realizing they were from his home state of Michigan, Meyers first called local pastors he knew. One contact identified one of the students but had no idea he was in Oman. The sending organization had instructed him not to name the nation of his visit, the student told Meyers, lest he be inadvertently exposed—and possibly killed.
Open Doors ranks Oman No. 32 in its annual World Watch List (WWL) of countries where it is hardest to be a Christian. Its most recent report included an article about a female Omani convert to Christianity living in the US who stated on social media that if she were in her home nation, she would be killed or imprisoned for her faith.
Yet Oman is not on any lists of religious liberty offenders created by the US State Department or the Commission on International Religious Freedom. The State Department’s annual report cites Open Doors’ complaint about the treatment of converts and the monitoring of churches, but also that Christian groups had not reported any incidents of abuse or surveillance.
Meyers counseled one of the students, whom he was able to connect with, to respect the laws of Oman. Both students finished their six-month stays without further incident. Several years later, with the publishing of the 2025 WWL, the Omani government called Meyers again. Would he invite Open Doors for a visit so that officials could address their complaints?
The Open Doors report praised AAC for creating a more tolerant attitude among Omanis toward Christians while citing the Oman government’s support for AAC as an example of the country’s efforts to improve diplomatic relations with the West. Meyers has resided in Oman since 2013, serving as AAC executive director since 2021.
Open Doors had not consulted him and did not immediately respond to the Omani government’s invitation to visit—but Open Doors and AAC have since begun discussions about how to work together.
Since the death of former sultan Qaboos bin Said in 2020, Bosch explained, the new government has intensified its efforts to discover Christians who secretly share their faith. Previously, the authorities only identified those working directly with Omani converts. Now, the interrogation is broader, as authorities try to find networks and funding sources, Bosch said.
According to Open Doors criteria, “dictatorial paranoia” and “Islamic oppression” are two key drivers of local persecution. Although apostacy is not a criminal offense, converts could lose custody of their children under sharia-influenced personal status codes. But another driver is “clan oppression.” Within Oman’s tribal society, converts face shunning from society. And although the report recognizes that violence is not encouraged by the culture, some have been attacked for their faith.
Persecution, Bosch emphasized, is any act of hostility toward faith.
Mohammed al-Shuaili, associate director of AAC, said that Oman’s laws against proselytizing are expressly meant to prevent religious hostility. Two-fifths of the population are migrant workers, including many Christians and Hindus from the Indian subcontinent. The constitution prohibits religious discrimination, and these vulnerable communities are protected from Muslims who might pressure them to convert to Islam.
Oman designates four official groupings of Christian worship, including Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and recently approved Mormon churches, all of which must register with the government. The nation additionally hosts four Hindu temples, a Buddhist temple, and a Sikh house of worship. Open Doors agrees that believers from these religions—as well as non-Omani converts from Islam—are generally left alone unless they evangelize.
But another factor behind the anti-proselytization law is the diverse nature of Islam in Oman, Shuaili said. While the government does not publish statistics on religious demography, the US State Department estimates the Muslim population is evenly divided between Sunnis and the local historic Ibadi sect, alongside a sizeable Shiite community. While sectarian violence plagues countries like Iraq and Pakistan, all mosques are open to all Muslims in Oman.
Before the government began monitoring mosques in the 1980s, Shuaili remembers hearing anti-Christian sermons. These have since ceased, he said. The US State Department stated that religious content must be approved and fit within “politically and socially acceptable” parameters.
“My two best friends are Sunni and Shiite,” said Shuaili, an Ibadi Muslim. “Our history of pluralism is hundreds of years old.”
The Omani respect for religious diversity stems from the Ibadi faith, he believes. The sect originated in the late seventh century during the Islamic civil war between followers of Muhammad’s nephew Ali, who became known as Shiites, and those of Mu’awiya, the governor of Syria who usurped Ali’s power as the community-chosen caliph. This party eventually became known as Sunnis.
A third group, who supported Ali until he agreed to arbitration with Mu’awiya, led to the creation of Ibadi Islam. Known as Kharijites, they believed Ali compromised Islam by negotiating with Mu’awiya, an apostate leader who rebelled against Allah’s caliph and relied on tribe over faith. Often associated with extremists today, the Kharijites fought both parties fiercely. But a moderating faction within the Kharijite movement, led by Abdullah bin Ibadh, became disturbed at the violence and schism within Islam.
Named after this leader, the Ibadis recognized Ali’s right to rule and Mu’awiya’s sin. But they refused to label a fellow Muslim an apostate over political or theological differences of opinion. As others counseled either revolt or retreat into isolated communities, Ibadis urged living together and permitted intermarriage between the sects. In similar spirit, Shuaili said he would prefer that a doubting Muslim adopt Christianity, rather than abandon faith in Allah altogether.
He attributes much of the Omani rejection of conversion to its traditional conservative tribal culture. His own mother, he said, struggled to accept his marriage to a woman from a different clan.
Meyers said that if any Sunnis or Shiites tried to convert fellow Muslims on a college campus to their sect, the law would have applied to them as it did the Michigan students. He knows of Omani converts to Christianity who live quietly without persecution, and officials have repeatedly assured him of the government commitment to uphold religious freedom.
But no one, they tell him, can force a father to accept a child who rejects the family faith. Meyers noted that’s the same conflict some families in western Michigan face too.
Back in Oman, some foreign evangelicals come on false pretenses, Meyers said, seeking legitimate residency to enable their propagation of Christianity. Others, in their zeal for Scripture, have left Bibles on the doorsteps of Omani homes. Muslim residents are offended, he said, not just at the impersonal imposition of another religion but by the sacrilegious treatment of a holy text.
Meyers said he has come to “deeply appreciate” the prohibition of proselytism that, he believes, does not curtail religious freedom but rather enhances it.
One Pakistani Christian told him he feels safer in Oman than he would in his own country. At AAC, Meyers explains the Christian faith and its differences from Islam without opposition. Al-Amana also hosts the Arabia-wide ecumenical Gulf Christian Fellowship, and local clergy thank the sultan for interfaith harmony.
Bosch believes these Christian leaders are in a delicate position. While he believes it’s important that the government ensures the freedom of worship for its many communities, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights—which Oman has not signed—establishes the right to “impart information and ideas of all kinds.” This includes all residents in Oman who wish to share their faith.
“Practicing your religious rites is only a part of freedom of religion,” Bosch said. “Interfaith dialogue is important, but there are two stories to tell.”
Despite their different priorities, AAC and Open Doors are discussing how best to engage the government about Oman’s entry in the next World Watch List. A detailed understanding, however, has yet to be finalized.
